William Penn Drops KCAC Opener to Braves
Oskaloosa–The Statesmen men’s lacrosse team was unable to take advantage of finally being on its home field as it fell 16-11 to Ottawa in its Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference opener Wednesday.
#8 WPU (3-1, 0-1 KCAC), which was playing at Statesmen Community Stadium for the first time this season, could not slow down the Braves (1-1, 1-0 KCAC), who held a 47-32 edge in shots.
OU was impressive in the faceoff circle (22-8 overall) and parlayed that success into two goals in the first four minutes of play. The navy and gold eventually found their bearings and answered with unassisted goals from Collin Baliva (So., St. Louis, Mo.) and Tim Pennington (So., Boise, Idaho, Biology).
After another visiting tally, Nate Blasingame (Fr., Portland, Ore.) knotted it up one final time as Breck Putzier (Fr., Minneapolis, Minn.) linked up with him to make it 3-3. The Braves unfortunately scored three unanswered in the final three minutes of the first quarter for a 7-3 advantage.
Boston Romero (So., Las Vegas, Nev., Business Management) was unassisted to put the first score on the board in the second, while Baliva pulled the hosts within two with help from Putzier. Ottawa closed out the half on a tear, though, with four goals in four minutes to claim an 11-6 halftime edge.
WPU was reinvigorated for the latter 30 minutes, dominating the third period on both ends to the tune of a 3-0 advantage. Putzier and Pennington did it on their own, while Brady Treloar (So., Portland, Ore., Business Management) got on the board with an assist from Blasingame.
The sides would exchange a goal each in the first four minutes of the final stanza, but that was as close as the Statesmen could get. OU tacked on three in a row to put the game out of reach.
Blasingame finished off a big offensive outing with a pair of late unassisted goals. He matched Pennington with a team-high three goals.
Baliva (two goals, one assist) and Putzier (one goal, two assists) had a hand in three scores apiece.
With Jeremy Smith (Sr., Camano Island, Wash., Sociology) unavailable, Eric Garigan (So., Tucson, Ariz., Political Science) got the start in front of the cage and was busy all afternoon, finishing with 13 saves.
Next Up: William Penn will remain in Oskaloosa Saturday, hosting Indiana Tech in non-conference action at 1 p.m.
